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| July 2003 |
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More support for city bus systems
The updated Public
Transport Passenger Strategy has as one of its main goals to give city
buses, the metro system greater priority. The first version of the strategy called Our Future, Our Choice was
put out in 1998 by the City Council and Environment Canterbury (ECan,
the regional council). The Council and ECan share the job of planning
and managing public transport for Christchurch, with ECan responsible
for metro routing and frequency and contracting operators. The City Council
provides the physical things needed such as the Bus Exchange, shelters
on streets and road works, with both councils maintaining the real time
information system. A lot of progress has been made since the strategy was adopted in 1998. This year, it is expected that about 14.5 million passenger trips will be taken, about 2.5m more than the strategy’s forecasts, and well on the way to a first target of doubling bus use (to 17m trips a year) by 2008. That rise in metro use is the result of developments such as the six new express routes, faster ticketing with gold-coin fares (metrocard is to start in September), more frequent services, newer buses, the active support of bus operators and the friendly driver programme, the opening of the Bus Exchange in November 2000, many more shelters on streets and the introduction of the Orbiter and Central City Shuttle services. However, the strategy update report which the Council considered on 26 June says that Christchurch has achieved many of the available quick wins in public transport and much of the easy work is now complete. “What remains are the fundamental and more challenging tasks to achieve a more mature, sustainable, efficient and convenient public passenger transport system that will truly influence a change in travel habits,” it says. The updated strategy outlines some of those challenges and the cost of not acting. Congestion on city roads is still increasing despite gains in public transport use, the report says. “If the situation continues, Christchurch will face significant traffic congestion in the near future.” Predicted over the next 20 years is a 34 per cent increase in traffic volumes, which would need more than $169m spent on widening and building new roads just to maintain congestion at present levels. When the first strategy was put together it predicted seven city roads would be congested by 2007. The updated strategy shows a marked change in this outlook, suggesting that 18 roads will often be nose-to-tail by 2006. “If these trends continue, the ease of moving around Christchurch and the quality of life… may be lost forever,” it concludes. In 2003/04 the City Council and ECan collectively will invest about $19m inpublic transport in the city. The report estimates that they will need to be spending at least $22m a year by 2008 to meet the improvements set out in the strategy. City Councillor Denis O’Rourke, Chairman of the Sustainable Transport and Utilities Committee, says the City Council is now making a firm commitment to move ahead with projects designed
to make bus use a more attractive option for commuters and other members of the public. "By far the most important part is the decision to bring in at least three
major public transport routes with high-quality bus priority measures in them
by 2006," he
says. "Also in there is a determination to build suburban interchanges and
to continue to increase the number of on-street shelters." The Council, he believed, may need to consider providing alternative parking for some shopping areas on roads which were to be targeted for bus priority changes. |
